The Alaskan
summer is well underway, but the nights are still little chilly and
I've kept all three blankets on my bed. When I was growing up we only
had one car most of the time and it wasn't that reliable so we'd
spend most days at home. There would be weeks where we didn't leave
and I remember my mother half joking about cabin fever. My sister and
I never really felt it. Being stuck at home was fine as long as we
had books, movies, board games and weather that would allow us to
periodically escape each other. Now I'm grown and living in the
middle of east nowhere Alaska and I think I finally am understanding
the real stir-crazy potential of cabin fever that my mother way
hinting at.

Alaska is
beautiful, especially as the weather grows warmer. We have wild roses
growing through the front porch and the sky, with it's parade of
puffy clouds, is the definition of vast. Unfortunately the mosquitoes
seem to have formed loosely knit gangs that attack as soon as I step
out the door, so long hikes are out for the time being, which means
I'm largely house bound. I get up each morning and fast walk the 30
feet to work where I wait on a slew of interesting tourists and
truckers traveling up and down the Dalton Highway. Most of them ask
where I'm from which leads to a stock answer, something like “New
Hampshire by way of New Orleans” and then they ask what brought me
to Alaska to which I answer “Louisiana was getting hot so I picked
the farthest point north.” It's like a script now that I recite ten
to fifty times a day. And there's the issue. Each day here is very
similar to the last one and the perpetual sunshine just adds to the
feeling of a never ending loop.

Now, I'm not
saying this is necessarily a bad thing. If anything it's made me
appreciate the little stuff, the slight variations like a cook that
makes a special employee meal or a pair of chatty bicyclists. It also
occurs to me that very often we are given things to occupy us, like
television, shopping, driving, eating out. Did you ever read
Fahrenheit 451? Bradbury wasn't just warning against a world
where books were outlawed, though that's what people always pick up
on, he was warning against a world where we no longer had the
“leisure to digest” information. A world where we were constantly
kept busy, so busy that there was no time to wonder about ourselves
and our world, to analyze the information in books. I think that's
been the gift of Alaska, that I have so much time to think now and,
while it can be a little overwhelming, it's lead to some interesting
choices.

My house in the woods

For one I
asked my father to ship up my violin and now I practice every day,
sometimes for hours if my housemates can stand it. I also have begun
brushing up on my Spanish and learn at least one new word or phase
each day. I still read too, at least two books a week. I take all the
work I can now, giving up days off, so I'll walk out of the woods
with a good chunk of change, maybe even enough to make a side trip
somewhere between Alaska and Louisiana.

So I'm
adapting, maybe so much so that my planned one month of city life
will be too much of a shock.

June 6, 2014

“We often miss opportunity because it's dressed in overalls and looks like work”

-Thomas Edison

I got a
bunch of emails after my last post asking how I go about finding and
securing seasonal work, a really good question as there seems to be
some confusion about what seasonal work really is.

First of all
seasonal work usually means work that is offered for one season
(spring, summer, fall, or winter), like a ski resort that hires 300
people just for the winter months and then most of them move on to
other jobs elsewhere. Some seasonal work, such as hospitality, is
less finite but still seasonal, like in New Orleans where hundreds of
bartenders are hired just for the Mardi Gras season with the
understanding that they will probably not have shifts come the slower
summer months.

This site
has come a long way over the past few years. They have a really wide
selection of jobs from Conservation Corps to fly fishing resorts and
it's organized really nicely by season, state, and job type. This is
where I found Yukon River Camp.

I hate to
say it but this site seems to be loosing popularity, but it's still a
good resource to know. This was the site to go to before Cool Works
and is also organized by season, state, and job type. I would highly
recommend purchasing The Backdoor Guide to Short Term Job Adventures
4th Edition. Other additions have come out since but the
4th is the most comprehensive and useful. I found the
Vermont Youth Conservation Corp through this book and had a great
summer.

A job site,
like the ones listed above, is just a searchable database of
available positions with contact information included. If you're not
seeing anything you like then head for Google and search for resorts,
hostels, or ski resorts in the region you want then craft a nice
introductory email to their HR person. Make sure to attach your
resume and inquire about open positions. This is how I got both the
New Orleans Hostel and the one I'll be at in Puerto Rico come fall. I
emailed them and we negotiated a fair exchange.

I haven't
used this site a whole lot but have heard some good things from
coworkers. I found a sailing job and a few interesting resorts when I
was researching Florida so check it out.

Step#2: The
Application

An
application is an application, so make it look good and stand out.
Seasonal employers are less concerned about the length of your jobs
and more about your responsibilities and work ethic. You see,
seasonal employees are often a little flaky by nature. We're cool,
don't get me wrong, but we're a little abnormal as well. We live
without roots, far from family, and with very few possessions. We
need to make friends quickly but can't get too attached to people
we'll be leaving a few months later and while many workers travel by
choice, some just can't hold down a long term job and by the end of
their term an employer is happy to see them go. This is where
references come in. Get them from anyone you can and make sure
they're glowing because employers are taking a lot on faith and the
better you look from across the country the more likely they are to
take a chance on you.

Here's my attempt at looking "Resume professional"

Potentially
Helpful Tip: I was surprised how many jobs, especially resorts
and dude ranches, ask for a picture because that means there are
twice as many jobs that want a picture but had lawyers who told them
not to ask. One of the drawbacks to hiring seasonal employees is that
the employer doesn't get to sit down and interview them; most rely on
phone interviews which don't really give them an idea of how a
candidate might present to clients (some are going to Skype now, but
not many). The employers I've spoken to have all (every one of them)
talked about the nerve wracking experience of waiting for new
employees to arrive and hoping that they made the right choice, like
ordering a painting sight unseen and based only on a loose
description of its medium. What if they wear tons of makeup? Or have
a facial tattoo? Or a Mohawk? There's nothing wrong with these things
and some employers will embrace them while others will shy away, but
if you can present well in a photo then go get a hair cut, tone down
the makeup, and dress the part then attach a head shot to your
resume. It will make you stand out and give employers peace of mind.

Step #3: The
Interview

Like I said,
most of these job interviews are going to be done by phone which is
good for us because we can do them in our PJs surrounded by cheat
sheets. I personally have a notebook handy to write down questions as
they come up (employers love well thought out questions) and stay on
target with the questions they're asking. While these interviews tend
to play out along fairly standard lines they will probably ask about
your experience with communal living. Many seasonal positions include
dorm style housing so you'll be living with your coworkers, which
makes for a lot of togetherness and tends to breed drama. Employers
want to know that you'll be responsible and professional both at work
and towards your housemates.

So by now
you hopefully have the job, but remember to learn from my mistakes
and as soon as you've secured a position begin your research for the
next season. Employers begin hiring a season ahead and if you don't
have employment by the time your summer gig ends then you might find
that all the fall positions have already been filled.

Good Luck!
And if you have additional resources, ideas or experiences please
post them in the comments section. Lots of my experience is based on
the trail and error of other so lets expand out collective knowledge.

June 5, 2014

Something
I've learned from my limited seasonal work experience is that it's
never too early to start planning for the next jump. Positions like
mine have pretty solid start and end dates so it's kind of like
putting a puzzle together; you find another job whose start date is
close to your current job's end date and try to make them fit.
Because I hate being unprepared and scrambling for a last minute job
(though that's often what I end up doing) I started my winter job
hunt as soon as I began at Yukon River Camp.

The goal, as
I've mentioned, is to go south in the winter and north in the summer
thereby always being at a fairly comfortable temperature and avoiding
both the southern heat and northern snow. Unfortunately for me most
of the winter jobs in the US are at ski resorts. They hire huge
numbers of employees for the season but not only do I not
particularly like being super cold, I also don't have a ability to
pack or store large amounts of warm winter clothes.

With ski
resorts out I began looking at places like Steamboat Wells in Death
Valley California. They offer housing and a meal plan plus a decent
hourly wage, but they, like Yukon River, are in the middle of
nowhere. While a summer of social and cultural seclusion is relaxing,
a sort of vacation, I'm not sure I'm up for nearly a full year of
isolation. Next!

Realizing my
need for at least visual stimuli (the social part I can usually do
without) I began thinking about the Florida Keys, maybe doing some
waitressing or working on a boat for the winter, and I started
Goggling hostels I could stay at. By pure chance the Google map
showed a little dot way off to the south east in Puerto Rico where
there is a little hostel that's bright and cheery and very vacation
spot looking. So I emailed them, just like I did with The Marquette
House in New Orleans, and they they have agreed to let me come down
from about November through March. In exchange for 5 hours each day
five days each week I'll get a bed in a dorm, $20 daily bar credit,
and $50 per week which is enough for me to buy rice, beans, and maybe
the occasional chocolate bar.

Now it's
time to do some research. I'm sorry to say that most of what I know
about Puerto Rico comes from West Side Story, which I'm not sure was
the most accurate portrayal even in the sixties.